2 LaGrange baseball players killed in Georgia crash

Two LaGrange Higher education baseball players ended up killed in a car or truck accident in Ga on Saturday hours soon after their crew gained their conference match championship.

Stephen Bartolotta, 18, of Palm Metropolis, Florida and 19-calendar year-aged Jacob Brown from Duluth, Georgia, ended up amid 3 people killed in the collision in Troup County close to Georgia’s border with Alabama. Both equally were freshman pitchers for the Panthers. LaGrange verified their fatalities on Sunday in a statement from university president Susanna Baxter.

The 3rd sufferer was 24-12 months-outdated Rico Dunn of LaGrange, Atlanta’s WSBTV reviews. According to a Georgia State Patrol report attained by the Atlanta Journal-Structure, Bartolotta was using in a Honda Accord pushed by Brown on Ga SR 109 all around 9:15 p.m. on Saturday. Per the report, Brown attempted to go a different auto in a no-passing zone and collided head-on with the GMC Sierra pushed by Dunn in the opposite lane of site visitors.

Brown and Bartolotta died at the scene. Dunn was taken to a neighborhood medical center the place he was later on pronounced dead.

LaGrange accomplished a two-video game sweep of N.C. Wesleyan before Saturday to secure the program’s fifth-straight United states of america South Event championship. The earn secured a place in the NCAA Division III tournament, exactly where LaGrange is slated to host Centenary in a ideal-of-5 sequence beginning on Friday. It wasn’t obvious as of Monday if LaGrange supposed to engage in on in the NCAA event.

“Coming on the heels of the team’s conference championship earn yesterday, this news hits our baseball players especially really hard,” Baxter mentioned, for every WSBTV. “There simply just are no words and phrases.”

Head mentor David Kelton posted a tribute to Bartolotta and Brown on Twitter.

Georgia State Patrol explained to WSBTV that the crash continues to be under investigation.